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An Oration 



DELIVERED AT 



The River House, 



WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, 



On the Fourth of July, 1867, 



Col. ir EDWARDS CLARKE. 




BOSTON : 

Press of Geo. C. Rand & Avery, No. 3, Cornhill. 

1867. 



The Guests of the River House, 

DELIVERED AND PUBLISHED AT THEIR REQUEST, 

IS 

respectfully dedicated. 



Introduction 



i 



HE guests of the River House, having resolved to cele- 
brate the 4th of July, 1867, requested R. D. Livingston, 
Esq., to read the Declaration of Independence, and Col. I. Ed- 
wards Clarke to deliver an oration ; while Messrs. Camp and" 
Wade, with the assistance of the ladies, were to provide a 
concord of sweet sounds, and give, for the inspiration and 
delight of the guests, the national songs. 

A temporary stage, draped with flags, was erected upon the 
piazza; and at 11, a.m., the audience was called to order by D. M. 
Porter, Esq., who presided. Shaded from the sun, and fanned 
by the sea-breeze sweeping up the river, the broad piazza made a 
model auditorium ; and few audiences on that day could have 
been more pleasantly accommodated. 

" America " was first sung, then the Declaration was admirably 
read by Mr, Livingston, followed by the singing of " The Star 
Spangled Banner ; " then came the address, after which the choir 
gave "The Red, White, and Blue." After thanks, by resolution, to 
the reader and orator, the address was requested for publication. 
The audience were then taken charge of by Samuel A. Walsh, 
Esq., and his efficient assistants, Messrs. F. J. Weeks and H. G. 



VI 

Herrick, a veteran of the Virginia campaigns, whose attentions 
enlivened the festivities, and were gratefully appreciated. At 
2, P.M., Mr. Herrick invited the guests to a sumptuous dinner, 
worthy the day, and the high reputation of the River House. 
Under the shade of the grove, in the afternoon, the gentlemen 
whiled away the hours ; and it seemed unanimously conceded that 
all had enjoyed themselves, and that the celebration was a 
success. 

To the guests of the River House, for 1867, as a reminiscence 
of pleasant mutual acquaintance and of happy hours, this me- 
mento is offered by the Committee. 




Oration. 



IT has been thought fitting, that upon this day, 
when over the broad continent thirty millions 
of people rest fi*om labor in order to celebrate 
the natal day of this great Republic, that we, who 
find ourselves grouped under this friendly roof, 
should join in the grand chorus of joy, which, 
beginning in the far-oflf forests of Maine, hailed 
the earliest rays of the morning sun, and, sweeping 
gradually westward, as half the world revolves, will 
greet the setting sun from the golden gate of the 
Pacific and the silvery shores of Sitka! 

Gathered from so many homes, we find our- 
selves, for these summer months, thrown into asso- 
ciation as one family: it were passing strange if 
on all topics we held harmonious opinions ; but 
to-day, surely, spite of diverse associations or party 
" shibboleths," — to-day we have a common interest, 



8 



a common sympathy; for we are, above all else, 
Americans ! 

Our great orator, when he would give a vivid 
impression of England's sway, pictured, in his une- 
qualled diction, " Her morning drum-beat echoing 
round the world." Magnificent as is the imagery, 
and comprehensive as is the sway, it is, after all, 
but the drum-beat of a hireling soldiery, standing 
sentinel over distant and scattered colonies, and, 
in suggestiveness and sublimity, falls immeasurably 
below the spontaneous outburst of this peopled con- 
tinent, which the sun of this day wakes and witnesses, 
" from the rising even to the going down thereof." 

This morning, in the farthest village of Maine, 
when the sun's first ray flashed from the gilded 
vane of the church-spire, it woke the merry peals 
below; smiting sudden music from the tower, as 
of old, flashing along the Lybian sands, it was 
wont to wake the statued god to music. Instantly, 
as with some rare species of morning glory, the 
bare pole set in the village green blossomed into 
the flag; while, at the first sound of the bells, 
came the answering boom of joyful cannon ! So, 
from hamlet to hamlet, the glad news speeds : hills 
and mountains catch up and fling back from their 
reverberating cliffs the joyous echoes. The White 
Hills of New Hampshire echo it to the Green 



Mountains; the Green Mountains call across to 
the Catskills; these shout along the line to the 
Alleghanies, who, gathering up and multiplying 
the echoes among their multitudinous hills, send 
it far across the continent to the mighty ranges 
of the Rocky Mountains, which repeat the strain, 
till, as the fading sunlight gilds their topmost peak, 
old ocean learns the story, and seems, with his 
breaking billows along the shore, to murmur it as 
a lullaby to the sleeping continent! 

There is no wilderness so desolate, no little ham- 
let so remote, no wanderer so forgetful, as not to 
heed and welcome this glad day. 

The anniversary of that day which ushered into 
the august company of sovereign states a new 
republic, destined to a mightier sway than any im- 
perial or regal dominion ; the birthday of a na- 
tion, — ay, more, far more, — the beginning of an 
era to man ; an era whose early steps it is in our 
power to trace, and from whose morning splendors 
we can prophecy the brightness of its perfect day ; 
an era, not of the growth and prosperity of one 
nation only, but of progress to all mankind; an 
era which shall culminate when the vision of the 
poet is realized, — 

"When the war-drum throbs no longer, and the battle-flags are 

furled, 
In the parliament of man, the federation of the world." 

2 



lO 

We are standing upon historic ground, — on the 
banks of this lordly river, whose very name per- 
petuates the romance of its discovery, and whose 
history is linked with the most tragic event of the 
Revolution. This stream, in itself and its history, 
furnishes an epitome of our country, our growth, 
our destiny. Flowing, with stately sweep, between 
mountains whose grandeur more than matches" " the 
castled crags that guard the Rhine," by meadows 
fair as those that line the Thames, and beside 
gentle acclivities, whose villa-crowned beauty recalls 
those low hills that cluster around the flowered city 
of Arno's stream; at last, under yonder frowning 
Palisades, it passes out to meet the ocean, through 
a gateway as magnificent as that of any stream that 
seeks the sea. In its varied beauty and grandeur, 
its inexhaustible resources, and its untamable might, 
it may fitly symbolize this fair land, over whose 
broad domain Nature has lavished her wealth of, 
power and beauty with no niggard hand ; nor can 
we forget that its waves once upheld that little 
craft, whose rapidly-turning wheels prophesied and 
made possible those sailless fleets whose keels have 
since vexed every sea. Across to yonder valley 
paddled, in his light canoe, the hero-chief of Coop- 
er's romance ; a little above us, Irving made classic 
forever long reaches of river and shore ; beside 



II 



this very spot slowly sailed, in the evening twilight, 
that British man-of-war which carried Andre and 
brought back Arnold ! Every spot around us has 
been trodden by Redcoat and Tory and Conti- 
nental, in those dark days when the infant republic 
struggled on to an uncertain end. You may trace 
mound and rampart and bastion still, and imagina- 
tion re-peoples these woods and rocks with the 
struggling combatants. 

A son of genius, born beside this stream, peopled 
its Highlands with fairies in that most exquisite 
poem, " The Culprit Fay," and, in another moment 
of inspiration, penned those matchless lines to his 
country's flag, which will live as long as poetry 
charms, or patriotism inspires. 

Turning from the memories that cluster around 
the banks of this beautiful river to the present, 
we find in it a true index of our country's mighty 
growth. Who, passing a day of luxurious idleness 
upon this broad piazza, could fail to be impressed 
with the wonderful vitality, resources, and wealth 
of this country ? 

The crowded steamers that throng its waters ; 
the fleets of barges, with their guardian tugs, 
moving in unending procession ; the sails, that fly 
to and fro all the day; and, ever and anon, the 
thundering trains, flashing by, — swift shuttles, 



12 



weaving the nation's cloth of gold. All things 
show that a mighty people are paying tribute to 
some imperial city. 

Standing, then, where the memories of the Revo- 
lution still linger, and where the population and 
the production of the nation passes, as it were, in 
review before us, it seems peculiarly fitting that 
we, to whom past and present thus appeal, should 
pause for a moment, to remember what it is that 
this day commemorates, and to consider what, in 
view of the future of our country, is our duty as 
patriots and as citizens. 

The teaching of history has been compared to 
the stern lights of the ship, illuminating only the 
path that has been passed, but shedding no radi- 
ance to pierce the palpable darkness of the future ; 
but, to one who believes in a Divine Providence, 
that watches over the destinies of nations as of 
individuals, there is a solemn fascination in tracing, , 
while reading history, the unerring logic of events ; 
to see Nemesis ever standing by the side of states ; 
to mark how the present is the child of all the 
past ; and how the future inevitably springs from 
the present. Philosophy and Science are fast 
demonstrating that there is no " chance," — that 
order is Heaven's first and latest law. Buckle arid 
Agassiz, wittingly or unwittingly, show Philosophy 



13 

and Science, standing, as of old, the willing hand- 
maids of Religion ; and the thoughtful student of 
history is forced to exclaim with the poet, — 

" Yet I doubt not through the ages one increasing purpose runs, 
And the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the 
suns." 

Recall for a moment the discovery of this coun- 
try, the long delay of colonizing it, the almost* 
miraculous preservation of the feeble and scattered 
colonies, the recovery of the continent from the 
Latin and Catholic powers, the gradual steps that 
led to the concentration and final independence 
of the sometime separate and unfriendly colonies ; 
review the subsequent events down to the present 
moment, and doubt, if you can, the overruling 
guidance of a Divine Providence. 

In the light of the Emancipation Proclamation, 
the inscription upon that bell whose mellow music 
first rang out the thrilling news of the signing of 
the Declaration was not a mere coincidence. Not 
exultation only, but warning, mingled with its 
tones, had they been heard aright, " Proclaim Lib- 
erty throughout the land, to all the inhabitants 
thereof." 

It was in the same year that the "Mayflower" 
landed at Plymouth that the first slave-ship touched 



14 

at Jamestown. For two hundred and forty years 
the two systems introduced by these two ships 
developed themselves over the fresh and bound- 
less territories of this unsettled new world. Con- 
trast Massachusetts and Virginia to-day, and see 
the logical results of the two civilizations. Recall 
the horrors of the past seven years, count up the 
untold millions wasted in war, and see whether 
slavery (but for which secession had not been) is, 
on the whole, "profitable." 
Surely, though 

"The mills of God grind slowly, 
Yet they grind exceeding small." 

I doubt, if, to every human being who has toiled 
in slavery, fair wages had been paid through all 
those two hundred and forty years, the sum-total 
would have amounted to more than was destroyed 
by the devastation of the war, paid to the soldiers, 
and burned up in ammunition. 

Leaving the present, let us strive, for a moment, 
to realize the state of affairs as they were in 1776. 
Ninety-one years ago to-day, a few men, assembled 
in Philadelphia as Delegates of *' the United Ameri- 
can States, in Congress assembled," solemnly pub- 
lished and declared to the world the reasons that 
induced these thirteen colonies to throw off their 



15 

allegiance to the king of England, and to declare 
themselves free and independent States. In terse, 
pregnant sentences, they recited the wrongs which 
had been endured by them until endurance was 
no longer possible ; and solemnly commending their 
cause to the care of the God of nations, and to 
the judgment of the civilized world, they calmly 
awaited the issue. It was a sublime exhibition of 
courage. 

Three millions of people, — less by one-fourth 
than the present population of this State of New 
York, — scattered over an extent of country reach- 
ing from New Hampshire to Georgia; with not a 
single town of importance which was not a sea- 
port, and liable to sudden destruction by an enemy 
whose boast it was to rule the seas ; without arms, 
without money, without preparation, — calmly in- 
viting destruction. 

The trials, the sufferings, the endurance, the 
patient, persistent courage displayed for seven long 
years, all culminating in that final triumph which 
made the celebration of this day possible and obliga- 
tory, — are they not familiar as household words } 

"The land is holy where they fought, 
And holy where they fell ; 
For by their blood that land was bought, — 
The land they loved so well." 



i6 



Usually the founders of new States and the au- 
thors of new creeds seem unconscious of their high 
destiny. 

"The hand that raised St. Peter's dome, 
And groined the aisles of Christian Rome, 
Wrought in a sad sincerity; 
Himself from God he could not free ; 
He builded better than he knew : 
The conscious stone to beauty grew." 

But, among those immortal signers of the Declara- 
tion, there was one on whom the spirit of prophecy 
seemed that day to rest, as he wrote to his wife, 
at Quincy, the story of that summer day's work, 
and stated that " it will be celebrated by succeed- 
ing generations as the great anniversary festival; 
commemorated, as the day of deliverance, by sol- 
emn acts of devotion to God Almighty ; solemnized 
with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, 
guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one 
end of this continent to the other, from this time 
forward forevermore." 

Among those who are recalled this day, the 
prophet, John Adams, should surely be honored; 
for never did prophet prophecy more truly. 

So many years of peace had made the story of 
war obsolete ; so great discoveries and triumphs in 
the physical world had hidden the work of the 






fathers, just as the carved and ghstening marble 
hides the soHd granite foundations below. So im- 
perative was the demand for work, in development, 
by railroads, of this vast and ever-extending territory, 
that, to many, a day given up to the history of old 
battles, and encomiums upon the American Eagle, 
seemed a day wasted, and a fit subject of ridicule. 
But, fortunately, the American people would not 
give up their only holiday. They would continue 
to march in processions, and sit long hours while 
some village orator told over again the stories of 
the Revolution ; and in the little red schoolhouses 
scattered all over the New-England hills, and the 
far-away Western prairies, the children learned the 
story of Lexington and Bunker Hill. They might 
know nothing of the world's great battles ; of Mara- 
thon or Thermopylae, of Agincourt or Waterloo : 
but they did know of Valley Forge and Trenton 
and Yorktown. Fighting for country against the 
British was all the history we had ; and the stu- 
pidest urchin of them all, though he might fail to 
comprehend the mysteries of " the three r's, — read- 
ing, 'riting, and 'rithmetic," — did learn to hate the 
Britishers, to love the Continentals, to despise the 
Tories, and to worship Washington. And so it 
was, when the need came, the children of the 
Revolutionary sires justified their descent. 



The astute conspirators, who thought the time 
had come to execute their long-planned treason, 
left out of calculation the Fourth-of-July orations, 
the little red schoolhouses, and " The Child's His- 
tory." They should have remembered, that, as the 
Tories went down before the wrath of the old 
Continentals, so would their children, the Northern 
allies of secession, sink into insignificance before 
the awakened wrath of the descendants of Revo- 
lutionary sires. 

They should have remembered, moreover, that 
it was not the recital of wrongs endured which 
gave to that Declaration its vital force ; it was not 
the simple, indignant uprising against unendurable 
oppression, which gave to our Revolutionary fathers 
that success which justifies the Declaration, and 
redeemed rebellion from the stigma of treason. It 
was because that Declaration contained a seminal 
principle, because it announced the absolute polit-, 
ical equality of the individual man, because it 
was the first translation of the Golden Rule into 
human politics, because it was a "Bill of Rights" 
for humanity, the " Magna Charta " of the whole 
human race ; that, like the cloud by day, and the 
pillar of fire by night, it led those struggling pa- 
triots safely through the Red Sea and the wil- 
derness. 



1 



19 

It is that living principle, which sheds around 
those words, and the memory of those who first 
uttered them, the fragrance of immortality. 

When the originators of secession put forth 
THEIR Declaration of Independence, mistaking the 
letter for the spirit, they enumerated, in justifica- 
tion of rebellion, a long list of supposititious wrongs 
endured ; but they forgot that it was the vitalizing 
spirit of freedom which gave life and victory to 
their great original. When they invoked the in- 
spiration of slavery, they surely forgot the words 
of that Thomas Jefferson who wrote the Declara- 
tion of '76, as, speaking of slavery, he said, " I 
tremble for my country when I remember that 
God is just." 

They forgot the countless procession of dusky 
forms, which, for nearly two and a half centuries, 
had been passing through the portals of death; 
going out from poverty, from slavery, from tor- 
ture, to plead for justice against their oppressors, 
before Him " whose arm is not shortened that it 
cannot save." 

Their doom was fixed by inexorable fate. Had 
it not been so from the first, what cause could 
have succeeded when burdened with the atrocious 
crimes of Andersonville } But no sacrifice, no 
heroism (and of these there was no lack), could 



20 



save their cause. " The stars in their courses 
fought against Sisera;" and theirs was a "lost 
cause" ere ever the wind of the bay had borne away 
the smoke-clouds from Sumter on that portentous 
April day. The champions of secession were as 
the bad man in Massinger's play, when he says, — 

" My arm is weighted down with widows' prayers, 
And my sword glued to its scabbard with wronged orphans' 
tears." 

How the youthful hosts of freedom rallied at 
their country's call ! 

" Freedom's flag above them waving, freedom's songs, triumph- 
ant sung ; 
Ne'er, I ween, to such an army, foe the gauge of battle flung." 

Above and around their undisciplined ranks hov- 
ered, as we may be permitted to conceive, those 
shining hosts seen by the servant of the prophet, 
when, at his master's prayer, his eyes were opened' 
before the walls of Dothan. 

Not wholly an idle imagination was it that saw 
the avenging ghost of old John Brown, ever march- 
ing in the van, and marshalling the armies of the 
Republic ; for it is not true, as the too despond- 
ing poet sang, 

"That Truth is forever on the scaffold. Wrong forever on the 
throne." 



21 



No : sometimes it is permitted to mortal eyes 
to behold the grand earthly coronation of Justice, 
so that Faith may not wholly fail. But at what a 
price it triumphs ! Number the desolated homes 
and hearts all over our Northern land. From 
what countless battle-fields, from what suffering 
beds of hospitals, from what inconceivable horrors 
at Belle Isle and Andersonville, the pale heroes 
of the loyal nation took up their line of march 
to join the armies of the skies ! How the joyful 
ranks of the shining hosts opened to receive them ! 
We may picture Warren welcoming Ellsworth, and 
be sure that the thousands, pressing on steadily 
after him, were each joyfully received by some kin- 
dred spirit of that countless army of martyrs who 
have died for the cause of human progress. 

But these mourning Northern homes, thus deso- 
lated, are not all homes of hopeless sorrow. Many 
a father, bringing back the body of his brave son 
" to rest amid familiar scenes," has been ready to 
exclaim, with Cato, — 

" Thanks to the gods ! My boy has done his duty ! 
Welcome my son ! There sit him down, my friends, 
Full in my sight, that I may view at leisure 
The bloody corpse, and count those glorious wounds. 
How beautiful is death when earned by virtue ! 
Who would not be that youth ? What pity 'tis 



22 



That we can die but once to save our country ! 
Why sits that sadness on your brow, my friends ? 
I should have blushed if Cato's house had stood 
Secure, and flourished in a civil war ! 

Mourn not, then, overmuch for the loyal dead : — 

" On Fame's eternal camping-ground 
Their silent tents are spread ; 
And Glory guards, with solemn round, 
The bivouac of the dead." 

Of the countless dead who died fighting for the 
alien flag, doubtless thousands were inspired by 
honest convictions of duty: of each of these we 
can but say, — 

" No farther seek his merits to disclose. 

Or draw his frailties from their dread abode, — 
(There they alike in trembling hope repose), — 
The bosom of his Father and his God." 

A touching incident was told me by one who, 
fought bravely in the Southern ranks. A fellow- 
officer, of whom he uttered a noble eulogy, fell in 
his arms on the rampart of Fort Wagner, whis- 
pering, with his latest breath, " My only regret in 
dying is, that I die fighting on the wrong side." 

" The wrong side ! " In the belief that this is 
the unspoken conviction of thousands, I largely 
base my hope of future unity and harmony. 



We have now glanced rapidly at the cause, and 
stated the reasons, that have justified the universal 
celebration of the fourth day of July. Its future is 
assured. History, as if fearful, that, among these 
later brilliant deeds, some day more fortunate 
might usurp its place, took care to write against 
the date Vicksburg, Port Hudson, and Gettysburg. 

The colonial period of our country never really 
closed till the war of secession began. We still 
looked to the mother-country for decisive words in 
law and literature. Suddenly, we have become, by 
virtue of military strength, a power among the 
nations. As surely as the great oak lies folded in 
the acorn's cup, so surely was our present free 
America contained in those opening sentences of 
the Declaration. Never had mighty drama more 
fitting prologue. Ours has been a natural develop- 
ment. The death-struggle between liberty and 
slavery was inevitable. It rests with us, now, 
whether those fiercely-contested victories of the 
war shall stand justified upon the book of fate ; 
or whether they shall shine upon the pages of our 
country's history only as the vain heroism of that 
wild charge at Balaklava, which illumined the murky 
fight with .a courageous splendor worthy the old 
chivalric days, but which, in no wise, aided to decide 
the contest, — brilliant but inconclusive, — a very 
meteor of battle. 



24 

We stand now at the very meeting of the ways: 
we may take, as we elect, the path that leads 
to republican freedom or centralized despotism. 
Rarely, in the history of a nation, is it thus given 
to a single generation to shape its destiny. We 
have seen how our woes arose from causes in the 
control of the men who shaped the new-born State : 
let us seek to spare our children similar suffering. 
Let us bury the bitterness of war. Let its hatreds 
and animosities be bygones. While, in the lately 
rebellious States, we must, in common prudence, 
keep the power in Idyal hands till assured that the 
rights of all will be secured ; as soon as possible, let 
the country be re-united. 

In this new country of ours, the noble principles 
of the Declaration have become vital facts ; and the 
political equality of man, without regard to color, 
race, or creed, has been embodied in the Constitu- 
tion, and enacted in the law. At last, the experi- 
ment, whether a government " of the people, by the 
people, and for the people," is possible, is to be fairly 
tried. The civilization and Christianity of a people, 
is to be measured, not by the condition of the high- 
est, but of the humblest. There is no foundation 
upon which a nation can build, save that of equal 
and exact Justice. 

Our republican institutions have passed through 



25 

a fiery ordeal, — such an ordeal as no other system of 
government has ever successfully endured. They 
are yet upon trial. It is the solemn duty of every 
citizen to give now his best, most earnest thought 
to his country. Revolutions go not backward. 
The status quo ante bellum never quite returns. A 
broader, better civilization opens before us, or the 
loss of all we sought in the republic threatens. 
These are not idle fears. Where men claim the 
rights, they should not shrink from the duties, of 
sovereigns. It is yet to be demonstrated whether 
we have virtue enough to rescue and preserve, in all 
their pristine purity, the principles of republican 
government. Let us look, for a moment, at our 
dangers. Four millions of people forcibly changed 
from slaves to freemen ; ten States, devastated by 
war, and, since the hurricane of war has subsided, 
starved by the failure of crops, are now under mili- 
tary rule ; taxes over the whole land, more onerous 
than those of any other civilized country ; an army 
of tithe -collectors, organized upon a system need- 
lessly oppressive and inquisitive ; a mixed foreign 
population, necessarily ignorant oC the duties and 
dangers of republican citizens. 

Whether, by the long-continued attrition of an 
inquisitorial revenue regime, the character of our 
people will not be essentially changed or modified. 



26 



is a grave question. Whether the habit of unques- 
tioning obedience to official commands, engendered 
by miHtary discipHne, and patiently endured during 
the war; and whether the old Federalist leaven of 
desire for centralization, destructive to all repub- 
lican freedom ; the known tendency of every de- 
partment of government to aggregate power to 
itself; and the long exercise of unprecedented power 
by every department, — are compatible with that indi- 
vidual independence which is the most essential 
element in the character of an American citizen, or 
whether all these new and exceptional influences 
are more than counterbalanced by our training be- 
fore the war, are questions for thoughtful considera- 
tion. 

The apparent dangers to arise from the sudden 
disbanding of enormous armies were shown to be 
but " apparent." When a million of soldiers sank 
back into the people, — as the rain drops into the 
ocean, — the citizen soldiery of the Republic, the 
bronzed veterans of a hundred battles, became but 
simple citizens ; and the chimera of a military des- 
potism, subverting our form of government, disap- 
peared. High-spirited, independent, impatient of 
impertinent interference, acknowledging no superior, 
submitting to no unjust authority, giving to all the 
political rights claimed for each ; obeying the law, 



27 

because creating it, and therefore able to change it 
if found obnoxious ; tolerant of religious opinion, 
because believing it a question between the Creator 
and the individual ; respectful to rulers, because 
they were the executors of the law, while vigilantly 
watchful that they should be faithful servants of the 
people ; intelligent, and careful that common-school 
education should be universal ; industrious, capable, 
honest, patriotic, — such should be, in theory, the 
character of a citizen of a republic, such the prod- 
uct of its principles ; and such was, in fact, the 
character of the free-born American citizen. When 
that character shall have become essentially changed, 
republicanism, as we have understood it, will become 
impossible. The necessity, imposed by the war, of 
a minute, all-embracing system of taxation, is the 
most dangerous change our revolution has thus far 
produced. This tendency must be balanced by 
careful education, and by the constantly instilled 
idea that this system, as well as the creation of 
military governments over the Southern States, is 
but a temporary expedient, rendered necessary by 
the misfortunes of war; and while it is to be en- 
dured, as offering the only honorable solution of our 
difficulties, it is not, in itself, to be commended or 
long continued. 

We have now fully considered the depressing 



28 



conditions that surround our country, and can 
profitably note the encouraging features that should 
give cheerfulness and hope. Strong in the pas- 
sionate love and devotion of her sons, our beloved 
and victorious Country calmly awaits the future. 
Burdened, as we are, with the enormous debt con- 
tracted to save the Republic, our burdens are not as 
great, in view of our rapidly-augmenting resources, 
as were those which rested upon our fathers at the 
close of their seven-years' war. To their three mil- 
lions of population, we oppose thirty millions ; for 
their narrow strip of Atlantic sea-coast, we have 
half a continent ; and the mighty Mississippi is now 

" A nation's heart, whose hands, 
Far to eastward, far to westward, touch the shining 
ocean sands." 

We measure distance by thousands of miles ; but 
steam and lightning so dominate space, that our 
extremest limits are nearer than were theirs. With 
them, population grew by slow accretion ; to us, the 
thronging thousands escaping from Europe turn 
the ocean to a ferry. Invention has so multiplied 
the capability of the laborer, that now one man 
accomplishes the labor of four in those days. Over 
all the land, Providence again smiles with the prom- 
ise of a bounteous harvest, and Peace stands wait- 



29 

ing to shelter us under her white wings. Southern 
cotton-fields and Northern prairies welcome the 
returning laborers. He who lately toiled under 
the musket, now "jocund drives the plough a-field." 
Labor, armed with pick and spade, delves among 
precious metals in the mountain mines. Commerce 
marshals her fleets to bring to us the products of 
the Far East. All things prognosticate an era of 
material development, which shall make the burden 
of our national debt, a few years hence, so light as 
to be no longer burdensome. 

Nearly four centuries ago, the bold Genoese set 
sail from Palos, seeking India, and found the New 
World. For four hundred years, men have spoken 
of the happy chance by which, when in pursuit of a 
delusion, he found immortal fame. But, lo ! within 
the past eight months, we have demonstrated his 
theory, proving that, though dying in ignorance of 
the fact, he had nevertheless found what he sought, 
— the shortest way to the Indies. In the world's 
history, the control of the commerce of the East 
has ever signified wealth and dominion. Its posses- 
sion has been the most eagerly-coveted prize be- 
tween nations. To-day, beyond a peradventure, that 
commerce is ours. Into our coffers, " Ormus and 
Ind," China, and Far Japan, shall pour " barbaric 



• 30 

gold." Draining Europe of population, and Asia of 
wealth, America shall stand the centre and con- 
troller of the earth. All lands shall acknowledge 
her might, and pay tribute to her power. 

Within the lifetime of some who now hear me, a 
hundred stars shall cluster on that banner, and a 
hundred millions of happy people gather beneath 
its folds. 

The Latin races in the New World have utterly 
failed ; only the Anglo-Saxon, with his Irish and 
German cousins, prospers. Whether, as free citi- 
zens, either the African or Asiatic can be con- 
joined, is still a problem. 

Down to the border-line of Mexico, a common 
language, common origin, common traditions, and 
common interests, point to a common government. 
The physical configuration of the continent implies 
unity of ownership; for the dwellers by streams that 
drain a continent will never submit to seek the sea 
through alien lands. 

" Our Union is river, lake, ocean, and sky : 
Man breaks not the medal when God cuts the die." 

We may condemn the acquisition of territory, and 
shrink from foreign immigration : it is but fight- 
ing against fate. As well seek to dam the Mis- 
sissippi, or forbid the Atlantic waves to beat 
against our shores. 



31 

It is often said that the principles of republican- 
ism will fail when applied to large territories. Why? 

The principles of local self-government in local 
matters, to which, as speedily as possible, we must 
return ; the idea that that government is best which 
governs least, rigidly applied to the General Govern- 
ment ; no taxation without representation ; no union 
of Church and State ; no privileged classes ; perfect 
equality of all citizens in civil and political rights ; 
universal elementary education, enforced, if need 
be ; strict subordination of the military to the civil 
power, as soon as congressional representations and 
local State Governments are fully restored to the 
States lately in rebellion, — what reason exists, in 
the nature of things, now that the strange anomaly 
of slavery has been annihilated, why these principles 
should not apply to a hundred States as well as to 
thirteen or thirty ? Republican institutions are not 
a failure. The wisdom of the Fathers is justified. 

At the close of the last century, after success 
gave emphasis to the words of the Declaration, its 
echoes were heard in Europe. Everywhere the 
people stepped up on to a wider field. Now that 
republican institutions here come forth so trium- 
phantly from trial, a far grander effect in Europe 
may be looked for. Already, it seems as if some 
new drama were about to be exhibited on the stage 



32 

of the world's history. The closing of an old era, 
the opening of a new, is upon us. Old civiliza- 
tions and future promise stand forth for all men 
to see. Wonderful mediaeval pageants, recalling 
the past magnificence of emperor and pope, have 
just been displayed at Pesth and Rome; while at 
Paris, all the mightiest rulers of the earth have 
assembled to look upon the products of earth's 
workers. The kings pay homage to the people, 
to the toiling millions, and recognize the royalty 
of labor. When the people shall universally com- 
prehend this, their reign begins. 

Among us, some men are so wedded to past 
forms as to be unable to see aught but danger in 
any change, regardless of its cause or obvious neces- 
sity, and would hamper the new nation with the old 
traditions ; but life mocks at dead forms, and the 
vitality of our country, which so terrifies them, is its 
sure hope. At the Navy Yard at Charlestown, they 
will take you into an immense ship-house, and there 
show you a vessel upon the stocks, where it has 
stood for years. The work of preparing her for sea 
was long since abandoned ; but there she stands, an 
object of interest to idle gazers, an excellent thing 
by which to learn how a ship looks when half-built, 
but, for all the practical purposes of a ship, as utterly 
useless, as if the noble trees, that gave their lives to 



33 

contribute the massive timbers that form her keel 
and shapely ribs, were still waving, in all their leafy 
splendor, along the slopes of rock-ribbed Katahdin. 
They have lost the life of the tree, and utterly 
missed the grander life of the ship. What idea 
of a ship would one have who should never see any 
ship but that ? How utterly would the true idea of 
the ship, — the full-rigged ship, spreading every 
sail, like some mighty bird poised over the water, 
an image of triumphant power, of all -conquering 
beauty, or scudding with bare poles before the 
angry waves, like a hunted deer, — fail of entering 
his imagination ! 

The " Ship of State " has furnished metaphor alike 
to poet and orator; but I have thought, ofttimes, 
that it was the long-housed ship on the stocks, and 
not the real child of the sea, after which they mod- 
elled. To ride out the storms of turbulent popula- 
tions, to bear the passengers safe over the trackless 
sea; that is the end and object of the ship: there- 
fore it is to the practical sailing qualities, not siin- 
ply to the " constitutional " ribs, that the eyes and 
thoughts of the statesmen, the navigators, must be 
directed. How to keep the ship true to her course, 
how to avoid the rocks and reefs and lee-shores of 
politics, these are the problems. I know no other 
guides than the fixed stars of principle. They must 



34 

know well the heavenly landmarks who would navi- 
gate safely over unknown seas. When clouds and 
tempest obscure the stars, sad will it be for that 
nation whose pilots have not some compass by 
which to lay the line true to the pole. For re- 
publican statesmen, that compass is to be found 
alone in an innate, unalterable love of Liberty and 
Justice. Such pilots has the good Ship found in 
times past, nor, under God's guidance, shall she 
lack them in the days to come. 




ORATION 



River Hoitse, Washington Heights, 



July 4, 1867. 



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